Sony considered getting rid of the optical drive on its next generation console, in favour of a download-only model.

Excitement surrounding Sony’s next-gen console, which has the codename Orbis, has been growing steadily for a while now.

The console is unlikely to be unveiled until sometime next year, with other reports suggesting it could be even further away than that.

Rumours have been flying as to what the console will feature, but the latest revelation shows that it is likely to come with an optical drive.

Sony contemplated download-only

That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, anyway. The paper claims that Sony was toying with the idea of making the Playstation 4 a download-only machine.

The plans would have meant that there would be no optical drive whatsoever, rendering physical media useless on the machine.

Of course, the world of technology is certainly edging its way towards an exclusively online environment, with cloud computing growing all the time.

But it seems Sony felt it was a little too soon to completely move online. According to the report, Sony abandoned the plans over concerns of inconsistent internet connections in various parts of the world.

Given that game files are pretty big, some countries’ connections would simply not have been able to cope – making the console virtually useless.

Not only that, but Sony has been such a big campaigner for Blu-ray on the PS3, it didn’t want to shoot itself in the foot by abandoning physical media altogether.

Sony PS4 – when will we see it?

E3 is a matter of days away now, so it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting a look at any new hardware from Sony this year.

But fans will be hoping for some promises or suggestions from the gaming giant, or at least an assurance that there will be a PS4 eventually.